AI regulation in Ethiopia (2026)

Ethiopia's Council of Ministers approved the country's first National AI Policy on 27 June 2024, developed by the Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute (EAII). It is a non-binding strategic framework covering ethics, data stewardship, sectoral integration (health, agriculture, education, security), and capacity-building, with a goal of making Ethiopia a continental AI hub by 2035.

The EAII was established under Council of Ministers Regulation No. 510/2022 as an autonomous federal body reporting to the Prime Minister. It serves as the primary national coordinator for AI research, standards development, and policy implementation, and is the lead institution behind the National AI Policy.

Passed by the Federal House of Representatives on 4 April 2024 and published in the Federal Negarit Gazette on 24 July 2024, this is Ethiopia's first binding data protection law, closely modelled on the EU GDPR. It designates the Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA) as supervisory authority and applies to any controller or processor handling personal data in Ethiopia, creating indirect obligations for AI systems that process personal data.

The National AI Policy adopts a risk-tiered approach: it encourages innovation in lower-risk applications while calling for mandatory human-in-the-loop oversight in high-stakes domains such as national defence and criminal justice. Sectoral regulators retain domain-level enforcement authority under the EAII's coordination.

Ethiopia has aligned its AI governance with the African Union's Continental AI Strategy and in February 2025 joined AU, EU, G7, G20, and UN members in adopting the Statement on Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and the Planet, signalling international coordination commitments.

As of May 2026, Ethiopia has no enacted standalone AI Act and no bill formally tabled in the Federal House of Representatives. Legal analysts note that binding AI-specific obligations—beyond the PDPP's data protection rules—remain aspirational, with calls for a dedicated AI proclamation still in pre-legislative discussion.